After defeating Pittsburgh in the Carrier Dome on Friday night, the Orange is 2-3. And it is fairly fortunate to be so. One of the reasons SU should be grateful is shown in this photograph. Indeed, Ameen Moore-Adonis, who came off the Syracuse bench to rush for 14 yards on five carries (and to score the Orange's lone offensive touchdown of the evening), proved to be a big help to the locals' cause.Frank Ordonez, The Post-Standard

Syracuse, N.Y. -- That old Orangeman-turned-renegade who died at the age of 82 a year ago tomorrow (Monday) would have enjoyed that Syracuse-Pittsburgh affair the other night at the Carrier Dome.

Now, Al Davis, a vertical guy who loved the deep game, would have curled his lip at the tepid Orange offense, sure. But beyond that -- as his motivation for getting out of bed in the morning was always found in the three words, "Just win, baby" -- he'd have been delighted.

Because SU won.

Oh, it won ugly. In fact, it may have won undeservedly. And, truth be known, it likely won because the other team simply wasn’t good enough to win, itself. But SU won before an announced crowd of 40,394. And so, Davis, who learned some of his football during his undergraduate days at Syracuse while watching Ben Schwartzwalder, sleeps with a smile.

“I am happy that we won,” said Orange coach Doug Marrone after watching his club survive the Panthers to improve to 2-3. “But I do understand that we have a lot of work ahead of us when you look at that game.”

No forked tongue there. And this from a guy who, like most football coaches, can massage the truth when the mood strikes.

Think about it: SU did not score over the contest’s final 46 minutes. SU’s offense, which produced a touchdown on its first possession, did not score over the affair's final 55 minutes. SU generated fewer yards, got off fewer plays, held the ball for less time. And all this against a Pitt squad that had lost to Youngstown State and stands today at 2-3 (like the Orange) thanks, in part, because it played and pummeled poor Gardner-Webb.

And there is this to consider, too: Friday night’s Syracuse cause was helped by the Panthers, themselves, who – trailing by only a point – had a first down at the Orange 17-yard line with some six minutes to play. All it had to do was go conservative and manage the situation by running three times into the belly of the SU defense . . . by then kicking a field goal (dead center on dry ground against no wind) from, oh, 30 yards . . . and by then continuing to hold the Syracuse offense that had sputtered all night.

Do all of that, instead of dropping back to pass to disastrous results (thanks largely to the Orange’s mad-dog defense, which pushed the Pittsburgh boys out of field-goal range) and Pitt would have beaten the Orange for an eighth straight time.

But, no. The Panthers, particularly their head coach, Paul Chryst, aided and abetted the SU cause by oddly choosing to fiddle with football canon. Thus, the Orange season, which would have been pretty much ruined with a 1-4 start and a ninth consecutive loss to a Division I-A foe, was saved.

“Just win, baby,” insisted Davis, the old Orangeman-turned-renegade who's been dead a year short of a day. Well, the Orange did that on Friday . . . barely, but in the end, so what?

On to Rutgers, where it’ll try to do so again.

(In addition to his columns and "To The Point" observations, Bud Poliquin will begin virtually every morning, seven days per week, with an 8 a.m. offering of some kind or another on the Syracuse University football program. Look for it here on syracuse.com. Poliquin can be reached at bpoliquin@syracuse.com.)